Tag Archive for: corporate treasury

Financing your international trade – documentary collections

| 04-04-2018 | Lionel Pavey |

 

Acquiring the right goods at the right price can eventually lead a company to overseas markets. International trade has certain barriers – buyers and sellers have never met and are reluctant to completely trust each other; drawing up documentation can be difficult and time consuming due to difference in law between 2 countries; agreement has to be made on the settlement currency; documentation that implies ownership needs to be sent, but the seller is hesitant to have these released to the buyer before payment has been made. This article looks at 1 of the 3 main financial instruments used in international trade – the documentary collection (DC).

What is the process?

1 – Buyer and seller agree terms and conditions for a trade to take place – the means of payment, the collecting bank (this is usually the house bank of the buyer), a detailed description of the set of documents that have to supplied.

2 – The seller (exporter) arranges for shipment of the goods to the buyer (importer) via a shipping agent and receives a transport document (usually a bill of lading) that is negotiable.

3 – The seller prepares the agreed documents into 1 package and presents these to his bank (the remitting bank). This will include the bill of lading, certificates of origin, inspection notices, a collection order stating the terms and conditions under which the bank can release the documents etc. and a draft.

4 – The remitting bank will send these documents to the collecting bank instructing the collecting bank to present the documents to the buyer and to collect the payment.

5 – The collecting bank will inspect the documents and the contract, ensuring that they are in compliance with the collection order.

6 – The collecting bank will contact the buyer stating that the documents are in order, or what discrepancies have been established; and inform the buyer about the terms and conditions of the collection order.

7 – The buyer will be shown the documents and asked to accept them. Acceptance is recognised by signing the draft. When the documents are accepted, and payment is made then the documents are handed over to the buyer.

8 – Release of the documents occurs in  2 ways – documents against payment is when payment is made at sight of the documents; and documents against acceptance is when payment is made at an agreed date in the future.

9 – The buyer takes possession of the documents allowing them to receive the goods from the warehouse or port where they are being stored.

10 – The collecting bank arranges to pay the remitting bank either immediately in the event of a sight bill, or at the agreed future date in the event of an acceptance bill.

11 – The remitting bank arranges to credit the account of the seller.

So it is a letter of credit?

No, a documentary collection is an alternative to a letter of credit. In a DC, the banks undertake no guarantee role – they merely advise, release documents and effect payments. If a buyer does not agree to the documents, they do not receive the goods, the banks do not effect payment and the seller is out of pocket. Therefore a DC is normally far cheaper than a LC.

Why use a DC?

Both buyer and seller know each other and are happy with their existing relationship.

The collections are for a one-off transaction – there is no open account between the parties.

The seller has faith in the economic and political characteristics of the importing country.

A LC is not acceptable to both parties.

Documentary collections are governed by the Uniform Rules for Collections as issued by the International Chamber of Commerce.

Lionel Pavey

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist

 

How To Optimize Your Cash Management – upcoming event

| 19-03-2018 | treasuryXL | TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions |

Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH (TIS)- a partner of treasuryXL, are organising a very engaging event that is being held in Amsterdam on Tuesday 27th March 2018, for corporate treasury. We have been kindly invited to attend and shall report back to you later, with our thoughts and experiences on what promises to be an interest evening. Read on for more information about this event and sign up if you find this event relevant to you and your company.

TIS will be joined by Cashforce, at the TIS Experts Evening in Amsterdam. The main focus will be on TIS client Archroma and their presentation on the global implementation of TIS.

TIS is the leading cloud platform for the management of company-wide payments and cash flows. TIS enables companies to make more efficient, more secure and more cost-effective payment transactions while also enabling customers to make better decisions when analysing financial and operational performance in real time.

Bas Coolen, Head of Treasury at Archroma, will present challenges in his department and his key objectives for a consolidation of bank account management and an optimization of payments.

Archroma is a global colour and specialty chemicals company headquartered in Reinach near Basel, Switzerland. It operates with 3,000 employees over 35 countries and with 24 production sites.

Cashforce will inform you about the art of automating your cash forecast with minimal effort.

TIS and Cashforce are very much looking forward to stimulating discussions and ideas with their comprehensive agenda and lectures. Reports on trends, achievements and real-world examples from the industry will round up the program for this evening.
During the networking section you will have the opportunity to further exchange with Bas Coolen and the experts from Cashforce and TIS. You can take this opportunity to ask your questions about how to operate an elaborate cash management system, that offers the functionality you require.

The event is being held in the Dylan Hotel, built on the site of a famous theatre – so we can expect a good performance.

Register now for one of the last remaining seats via the following link: Expert evening Amsterdam

treasuryXL wishes everyone – both participants and attendees – a productive evening and will report back later with our findings.

TREASURY FOR NON-TREASURERS: The good, the bad and the ugly of outsourcing

| 12-02-2018 | treasuryXL |

Planning & OperationsIn January 2018, Carillion – a British construction, engineering and facilities company – entered into liquidation. They had been in existence since 1999 after a demerger from Tarmac, which had been founded in 1903. They were the second largest construction company in the British isles, employing more than 40,000 people and were listed on the London Stock Exchange. They were known for their role in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes – a form of Government outsourcing. Their insolvency has led to the loss of jobs, shutdowns of ongoing projects, and financial losses to more than 25,000 pensioners and 30,000 suppliers.

Outsourcing is a method used by most Governments in Europe to buy a particular service as opposed to providing the service directly. This allows a Government (or a company) to identify their core competencies and to buy in the ancillary services they need to perform all their tasks. A big motivator is of course related to cost. For a company this means only employing those staff that are needed for the core operations and hiring in those needed for non-core functions, such as pay roll. For Governments it allows large direct capital expenditure to be removed from the balance sheet whilst still providing necessary services for maintenance and construction in the general infrastructure within the country.

In simple terms, however frustrated we might be with builders or manufacturers, we generally recognise that it is more efficient – both financially and economically – to have external suppliers perform these functions. We do not possess the knowledge or proficiency to undertake building our own homes or designing and fitting our own kitchens. It is more acceptable to hand complex tasks over to others, and so make the procedure more accountable and manageable.

Likewise for companies it is imperative to determine whether to employ permanent staff to undertake their treasury and cash management operations, or to look at buying in the relevant knowledge and expertise. Many companies do not have a dedicated treasury team. Regularly, the work of a treasurer is incorporated into the work of another existing role within the organisation. This can be performed by the CFO, a controller, or the head of planning and control. Invariably, none of these people actually have the complete skill set to perform the treasury task.

When financing is needed for long term investment, contacting 3 banks and just taking the cheapest quote is not actually the same as getting the best deal. The individual banks could have different standard terms and conditions. The ratios expressed in the bank covenants could also differ from bank to bank. Implementing a hedging strategy for foreign currency requires a deep knowledge of the company’s cash flows, sales and purchases, and comprehensive understanding of the different financial products that can be used to hedge the risks.

Employing someone fulltime to perform these tasks is counterintuitive if there is not enough work for that person to be employed full time. Other staff could be resentful; the person could become disenchanted if there is not enough of a challenge in the work; a lack of continuity within the company could exist.

However, employing someone on a flexible basis to do the work that needs to be done and nothing else, allows direct payroll to be cut, a dedicated and proficient person is employed to perform the tasks, and the company can yet again focus on their core competencies.

Are you facing these issues? Are you looking for a professional solution?
Flex treasurer offer you a bespoke solution to address your individual needs.
Contact us for more information and answers.

 

Lionel PaveyLionel Pavey – Cash Management and Treasury Specialist

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BEPS and its impact on Corporate Treasury

| 25-01-2018 | treasuryXL |

The BEPS (base erosion and profit shifting) initiative is an OECD initiative, approved by the G20, to identify over a period to December 2015, ways of providing more standardised tax rules globally. Phases two and three involve implementation and monitoring (together with some remaining standard setting and clarification). BEPS is a term used to describe tax planning strategies that rely on mismatches and gaps that exist between the tax rules of different jurisdictions, to minimise the corporation tax that is payable overall, by either making tax profits “disappear” or shift profits to low tax operations where there is little or no genuine activity. In general BEPS strategies are not illegal; rather they take advantage of different tax rules operating in different jurisdictions, which may not be suited to the current global and digital business environment.

Impact

Many large companies have developed funding and cash distribution strategies around tax regulations. The Netherlands is specifically known for its activity in Trust Offices. The changes envisaged by BEPS could result in the corporate structure of a company being deemed invalid. Many large international companies have Dutch registered offices whilst no physical work is done within the Netherlands.

It is not uncommon to see intercompany financing being structured purely to avail itself to the current tax regimes and advantages within different countries. Interest is a cost and is deductible against tax in many places. Structures have been put into place where a company arranges for interest to be paid at a company within a high tax regime, whilst the interest is received in a country with a low tax regime. BEPS has been designed to tackle this sort of situation.

Companies will now have to submit detailed reports on their holdings and representations on a country by country basis. Such reports will assist the tax authorities in better understanding how the global operations of a company are performed. This should lead to greater clarity on the transfer pricing policy being used by companies.

Companies need to review and outline their existing structures and investigate what the changes and impact will be once BEPS is initiated. It is quite conceivable that certain operations will be seen as not meeting the new criteria – leading to a change in the existing company strategy. This could lead to disadvantageous results, such as increases in the weighted average cost of capital that a company reports, which could affect its share price.

This means action has to be undertaken and this could lead to significant changes within some treasury departments.

 

If you want more information please feel free to contact us via email [email protected]

Financieringsstructuur: solide fundament of kaartenhuis?

| 12-01-2018 | Bianca van Zeventer |

Leningen worden vaak gezien als een goede manier om lange termijn investeringen te financieren. Een (gecommitteerde) meerjarige lening levert veelal zekerheid voor de middellange termijn. “Voor meerdere jaren vastgelegd” blijkt in de praktijk vaak niet waar te zijn. Leningen worden afgesloten als een aanvullende vorm van financieren, naast rekening courant, lease en/of andere leningen. Hoewel het aangaan van de meerjarige financiering ‘an sich’ niet heel risicovol hoeft te zijn, zijn de voorwaarden dit soms wel.

Elke vorm van financiering heeft zijn eigen voorwaarden. Aan de verschillende leningen worden specifieke voorwaarden toegevoegd. En dan zijn er nog de algemene (bank)voorwaarden.
Veel bedrijven nemen onterecht aan dat dit ‘standaardvoorwaarden’ zijn en er maar beperkte onderhandelingsruimte is.

De voorwaarden van de verschillende arrangementen spreken elkaar vaak tegen, zijn niet zoals beoogd en/of dienen niet het doel en het belang de onderneming.

Financiering in welke vorm dan ook blijkt vaak een kaartenhuis. In plaats van mooi gestapeld, zijn de arrangementen een domino met de eerste steen in handen van de kredietverlener.

Wanneer uw onderneming onverhoopt in zwaarder weer terecht komt, dan is het belangrijk dat het staat op een solide financieel fundament.
Voorkomen is beter dan genezen geldt hier ook. Beter vooral goed uit-onderhandeld dan later de financiering amenderen of herstructureren. Of zelfs geen keuze meer hebben. Uw bank of financier eenzijdig de mogelijkheid geven alle financieringen te herroepen of betaalbaar te stellen, biedt geen financiële stabiliteit.

Maar vaak blijken de verschillende voorwaarden zodanig in elk kaar te grijpen, dat dit wel het geval is.

Een FlexTreasurer met gespecialiseerde financieringskennis, kan u helpen een snelle scan te maken van uw financieringsstructuur, aanbevelingen doen voor aanpassingen en/of financieringsarrangementen namens u of samen met u (her)onderhandelen.

 

Bianca van Zeventer

Treasury and Finance Specialist / Owner of CuCoFin

 

 

MEER INFORMATIE

Wil je meer weten of iets anders over de diensten van Flex Treasurer of heb je een andere vraag?
Pieter de Kiewit helpt je graag verder.

 

This is why corporate treasury is great – The laymen introduction to corporate treasury

| 09-01-2018 | Pieter de Kiewit |

My father was a civil engineer and would have liked one of his kids to follow in his footsteps. Regretfully for him we all went in different directions, me landing an engineering degree of the wrong type. What I did like to learn from my first business management professor was about creating bridges between various functional areas. That is what I have been doing as a recruiter for almost 25 years, the last 8 solely in corporate treasury. Why treasury?

All organisations, even the small ones, can benefit from good treasury. Only the bigger ones hired permanent experts. The main three areas, perhaps oversimplified, they focus on are:

  1. Money logistics: opening and closing bank accounts, doing (bulk) payments, forecast money coming in and going out;
  2. Managing (treasury) risk: understand and manage the implications of interest or currency fluctuations. If your manufacturing costs are in Euro and you sell in Dollars and the price of the Dollar drops, what to do? What to do if you have excess cash on your current account;
  3. Funding: where do you get your money for new or current business? Bank loans, equity, mortgage, leasing?

This does not sound sexy, does it? But do understand that during the crisis treasurers found solutions for companies how to survive. They found funding to pay salaries, helped sales finding creative funding solutions to make complex transactions achievable, helped prevent companies going belly-up due to currency exposures, forced banks to offer better solutions at a more acceptable price.

Treasurers manage huge amounts of money and operate very close to the CFO. They are involved in mergers & acquisitions, reorganisations and international expansion. They act in small numbers but have huge impact if they would stop doing their work. And the job type evolves continuously. Creating new treasury bridges to traditional job types like accounting, tax, sales helps all doing a better job. The academic world is showing increasing interest. In the Netherlands the post graduate education at the Vrije Universiteit is becoming more prominent in the treasury community. Corporate treasury is very dynamic!

What I love doing is helping CFO’s, HR, internal recruitment and senior treasury managers with their staffing questions. What qualifications and personality type matches best with your current and future business situation. If you only hire one treasurer per year, what do you need to know to choose the best candidate? I hope now you can understand my passion for creating bridges in treasury and recruitment.

I look forward to your thoughts to the above and further contact,

Pieter de Kiewit
[email protected] / +31 6 1111 9783

Pieter de Kiewit

 

 

Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search

 

 

Who to choose: A generalist or a specialist?

| 11-12-2017 | Olivier Werlingshoff |

 

During the last few months this question has been on top of my mind. Is it better to specialize yourself and start a specific study?
First, we need to look at the definitions of both; a specialist is a person who is highly skilled in a specific and restricted field. A generalist is a person who is competent in several different fields or activities.

On LinkedIn you can find the 6 differences between a generalist and a specialist by “Han van Kasteren”.

 

I will mention a few:

  • Generalist can be more confronting; because they are sometimes not very familiar with procedures and will ask “strange and stupid” questions to understand the business,
  • A generalist will often use the Why question to understand the business,
  • Because a generalist is not stuck in a specific field, he can be more creative and can apply examples previously used in other fields.

But I also thought of two other differences which I would like to share with you:

  • A generalist can make an easier connection between the specific field and other departments because they are more familiar with the different other departments in a company
  • Because a generalist looks also to other departments they became more competent in selling internally their problem or their challenge to find a solution

Now I have mentioned a few bullet points I found on the internet, when can a generalist interim Treasurer be a good choice?

I would say especially in the field of cash management and working capital they could be a good choice. Both specialties have effect on different departments of the business to mention a few; controlling, sales department, procurement, tax and legal.

During my career I talked with a lot of CFO’s and financial managers of large companies and tried to understand their challenges and to help them achieve their goals. As treasurer I had my own challenges and tried to make links with other departments to achieve my goals.

I am a generalist with a passion for cash management optimization!

Olivier Werlingshoff - editor treasuryXL

 

Olivier Werlingshoff

Owner of Werfiad

 

TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions) at the DACT Treasury Fair

| 22-11-2017 | treasuryXL | TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions |

The DACT (Dutch association of Corporate Treasurers) will be holding their annual Treasury Fair in Noordwijk at the Hotel van Orange on 23rd and 24th November 2017 – the most important annual treasury event in the Netherlands. Discover treasury best practices, learn about the latest trends and exchange experiences. It will contain 9 practical workshops spread out throughout the day on topics including, among others, trade finance, supply chain finance, liquidity forecasting, cyber security and the Blockchain. There are more than 50 exhibitors present at the Trade Fair including Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH- a partner of treasuryXL.

Company Profile

TIS is the leading cloud platform for managing corporate payments, liquidity and banking relationships worldwide. The company delivers SMART PAYMENTS to help customers make BETTER DECISIONS. TIS enable companies to make more efficient, more secure and more cost-effective payment transactions. In addition, TIS enables customers to make better decisions when analysing financial and operational performance based on real-time payment flows. All mission-critical processes related to payment transactions are integrated into a multibank-capable, audit-proof cloud platform. This is a single point of contact for enterprise customers when managing and analysing their payment flows across the organisation. TIS take care of managing various payment formats, communication channels with banks, and ERP-agnostic integration. Offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), the ISO certified TIS solutions are quickly up and running without the complexity and cost of a long IT project.

If you are at the Treasury Fair, please take your time to visit their stand and mention treasuryXL.

Last week TIS raised $12 million in additional financing from international VC firm 83North. Read more on their website

This is TIS’s own announcement on their website announcing their participation.

We wish TIS success at the DACT Treasury Fair!!

If you want to find out more about TIS and their services and products please refer to their company profile on treasuryXL.

Het Treasury statuut als beheersinstrument voor woningcorporaties

| 21-11-2017 | Roger Boxman |

Het onderstaande korte artikel gaat in op de eisen van het  Treasury statuut. In een Treasury statuut wordt aangegeven wat het doel van de Treasuryfunctie is van de organisatie en in welke producten mag worden belegd en op welke wijze op hoofdlijnen gelden worden aangetrokken. Na het Vestia debacle, waarbij derivaten speculatief werden ingezet, heeft de overheid de wetgeving aangescherpt voor woningcorporaties. Een van de eisen is dat woningcorporaties verplicht een Treasury statuut moeten opstellen.

Treasury Commissie

De Woningwet 2015 verplicht om woningcorporaties een Treasury statuut op te stellen.  In de sociale woningsector zijn de circa 2,4 miljoen sociale huurwoningen gefinancierd met  € 88 miljard.  Het  Treasurystatuut geeft aan wat de lange termijn richtlijnen zijn met betrekking tot de treasuryfunctie en wordt mimimaal om de drie jaar geactualiseerd. Er wordt een Treasury commissie ingesteld als adviesorgaan van het bestuur.  . Hier kunnen externe partijen van deel uit maken mits deze onafhankelijk zijn. De Treasurycommissie adviseert het bestuur gevraagd en ongevraagd over de uit te voeren transacties en overige treasuryvraagstukken. Het bestuur neemt deel aan de Treasurycommissie in de hoedanigheid van toehoorder.

Treasury jaarplan

Het treasuryjaarplan wordt afzonderlijk opgesteld en is een onderdeel van de (meerjaren)begroting. Dit plan bevat het beleid, de doelstellingen, het mandaat en de treasury taken voor het komende jaar, waarbij rekening wordt gehouden met het in het Treasury Statuut geformuleerde beleidskader en een risico beheersingsparagraaf. In het treasuryjaarplan worden o.a. de volgende zaken vastgelegd: liquiditeitsplanning, bestaande renterisico en de uit te voeren treasury activiteiten.

Risicomanagement

De belangrijkste risico’s die gemanaged worden zijn het beschikbaarheidsrisico, liquiditeitsrisico en renterisico en in mindere mate het tegenpartijrisico. Het Treasurystatuut bevat bepalingen over uitgezette gelden per tegenpartij met limieten. Veelal wordt voor het renterisico een maximum van 15% van de leningen aangegeven waarover een renteherziening worden toegepast.

Samenvatting

Bovenstaande is een summiere opsomming van alle eisen die aan een Treasury statuut bij een woningcorporatie gesteld worden. De wetgever heeft een model Treasurystatuut dat tientallen pagina’s beslaat. Belangrijk is te beseffen dat er beperkingen aan de Treasuryfunctie worden gesteld en dat er formeel een mandaat is vastgesteld waarbinnen de Treasurer dient te opereren en zich te verantwoorden.

Roger Boxman

Senior Advisor Internal Control

 

How does liquidity forecasting accelerate growth: Cashforce @ DACT Treasury Fair

| 17-11-2017 | treasuryXL | Cashforce |

DACTThe DACT (Dutch association of Corporate Treasurers) will be holding their annual Treasury Fair in Noordwijk at the Hotel van Orange on 23rd and 24th November 2017 – the most important annual treasury event in the Netherlands. Discover treasury best practices, learn about the latest trends and exchange experiences. It will contain 9 practical workshops throughout the day on topics including,  trade finance, supply chain finance, liquidity forecasting, cyber security and the Blockchain. There are more than 50 exhibitors present at the Trade Fair including Cashforce – a partner of treasuryXL, who are also presenting a Workshop.

Company Profile

Cashforce is an innovative Cash & Treasury Management System, focused on automation and integration. As a ‘next-generation’ Cash management solution, Cashforce helps finance/treasury departments save time and money by offering accurate cash flow forecasting, flexible treasury reporting & automation.Cashforce is unique in its category, because it allows users to drill down to the transaction level details and the system integrates seamlessly with ERP systems & banking systems. In addition, an intelligent simulation engine enables companies to consider multiple cash flow scenarios and measure their impact. As a result, finance / treasury departments can be turned into business catalysts for cash generation opportunities throughout the company.

Workshop

Cashforce will be co-presenting a Workshop at 13:45, entitled How does Liquidity forecasting accelerate growth and what’s the role of the treasurer

The 2017 Global Treasury Benchmark Survey from PwC shows that companies worldwide hold a staggering $ 1.1 trillion (!) of excess liquidity in their business operations. These hidden liquidities can be tracked by an accurate and automated cash management and forecasting process. These can then be used to lower the company’s working capital or to realise additional growth.

Setting up an automated cash management & forecasting process has at last been made possible as a result of technological progress. Currently, 87% of treasurers still use manual spreadsheets. However, this process can be organised much more efficiently.

To demonstrate how this can be achieved, this workshop sets out the challenges of accurate cash flow forecasting, supported by a case study presented by the Interfood Group.

With $ 1.4 billion in annual revenue, Interfood is one of the leading global dairy traders and suppliers. Through 15 global offices worldwide, Interfood distributes over 800,000 MT of dairy products a year. Together with Cashforce, Interfood has set up an automated cash forecasting process. The case will be presented by Vincent Almering (Finance Director Interfood B.V.). Vincent has led the project from start to finish and acts as the key lynchpin for the different users (Traders / Treasury / Finance / CFO). Vincent will share the challenges and benefits of cash flow forecasting as well as his experiences. Finally, there will be a discussion on the main lessons learned, aimed at treasurers who are looking for a solution for an automated and accurate cash forecasting process.

Speakers: Vincent Almering, Financial Director Interfood B.V. – Nicolas Christiaen, CEO Cashforce. Moderator: Martijn Duijnstee, Manager Business Development Cashforce NL

Language: Dutch

If you are at the Treasury Fair, please take your time to visit their stand and mention treasuryXL.

We wish Cashforce success at the DACT Treasury Fair!!

If you want to find out more about Cashforce and their services and products please refer to their company profile on treasuryXL.